Features
8 FEB 2021 | EXEPOSÉ
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FEATURES EDITORS: Bethany Collins Joe Newell
Is outsourcing out of date?
Caitlin Barr considers the recent food parcel scandal and a lineage of government outsourcing blunders
O
NE potato. One pear. Seven biscuits. Two yoghurts. Two apples. Five crackers. Eight slices of bread. One can of spaghetti hoops. Two potatoes. One loaf of bread. Two oranges. One apple. Two slices of ham. Five slices of cheese. One tin of beans. Five bottles of water. One loaf of bread. One tin of beans. Two bananas. Two carrots. Three small apples. Two potatoes. A small bag of pasta. Some sliced cheese. Two Soreen bars. These are just three examples of the food packages that those who usually receive free school meals were given earlier this month. Intended to last between a week and ten days, these provisions were handed out instead of the meal vouchers that had been previously issued during the pandemic. After photos were posted, social media was ablaze with people demanding to know how these parcels could possibly have cost £30. Others want to know why the voucher system had been replaced at all. With the vast majority of children not in school during the current lockdown, why did the government pivot to this new system? Is the huge disparity between the value of the items and the price yet another example of government
incompetence, or perhaps even a more calculated move to profit? The Department for Education’s own guidelines for free school meals state that each child must be given at least one portion of fruit and one portion of vegetables each day as part of their lunch provision. The parcels fall short of this by a long way, with most of them unlikely to last more than a couple of days.
Others want to know why the voucher system had been replaced at all The company responsible for the food package provision, Chartwells, apologised, then insisted that the hampers cost £10.50 rather than £30. They issued the following statement: “We take our responsibility to provide children with access to nutritious food very seriously. We have worked hard to produce food hampers at incredibly short notice during these challenging times. Our hampers follow the DofE specifications and contain a variety of ingredients to support families in providing meals throughout the week. In the majority of instances, we have received positive feedback.” Chartwells asserted that it was the
government guidelines, not their own decisions, that resulted in these insufficient packages, however Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the provisions as “appalling” and “an insult” at Prime Minister’s Questions. Nevertheless, in October, he was one of 320 Tory MPs who voted against extending free school meals through the school holidays to Easter 2021, as did Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who recently said that he was ‘absolutely disgusted’ by the parcels. Images have recently surfaced of the food provided to independent schools by Chartwells, which includes jerk turkey steak, smoked salmon blinis, and miso broth. The gap between what is deemed acceptable for children whose parents can afford school fees of thousands of pounds a year and what is deemed acceptable for children whose parents struggle to put food on the table is vast and troubling.
Outsourcing has made a select group of people very rich indeed Boris Johnson’s government will continue to fail to provide adequate care to the vulnerable as long as they keep outsourcing to private firms
(often owned by family or friends of Tory MPs or key supporters). Isaac Bettridge explored this facet of the government’s pandemic strategy in his November article for Exeposé, pointing out that “for all the government’s rhetoric about how we’re ‘all in this together’ during the worst economic downturn since the 1920s, it’s made a select group of people very rich indeed”. Chartwells was allegedly paid £30 for each ‘hamper’, meaning that they presumably made a fairly hefty profit from the meagre offerings. Whether or not this is intentional profiteering, outsourcing is putting money in the pockets of rich CEOs with ties to the party. In light of this, it seems that this government’s commitment to outsourcing may finally be coming back to bite them.
It is clear that neoliberal privatisation policies have no place in our society After online campaigning by many figures including cook and activist Jack Monroe and footballer Marcus Rashford, who had previously led the government to enact three U-turns on free school meals, new guidance
was issued saying that “schools have the freedom to decide on the best approach for their pupils” with options including the food parcels or vouchers, as had been the previous arrangement. There seemed to have been yet another U-turn from the government, begging the question: what will the government renege on next?
There seemed to have been another U-turn from the government With schools in England recently being told not to provide free school meals over the upcoming February half-term, will this come to be the new backtrack for Mr Johnson? Will this government continue to be characterised by an inability to enact policies that won’t be reversed days later? With all of this in mind, it is clear that there needs to be a major upheaval in provision for the vulnerable during this pandemic. Whether genuine blunders or orchestrated profiteering opportunities, the government’s repeated failures to provide sufficiently during the pandemic make it clear that neoliberal privatisation policies have no place in our society.
Image: Philafrenzy, Wikimedia Commons